Rick Baker To Receive Locarno Vision Award
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- Rick Baker will receive the honorary Vision Award at the Locarno Film Festival, with the ceremony scheduled for August 12 at the Piazza Grande.
- Baker's career-defining credits include Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' music video, 'An American Werewolf in London,' and 'The Nutty Professor,' among other Hollywood landmarks.
- The festival cited Baker's collaborations with George Lucas, David Cronenberg, Brian De Palma, Joe Dante, Tim Burton, Peter Jackson, John Carpenter, and Mike Nichols as evidence of his industry-shaping reach.
- Locarno director Giona A. Nazzaro credited Baker with 'a Copernican revolution in cinema,' saying he 'opened new paths for the imagination of entire generations' through physical-transformation effects.
- The Vision Award specifically honors craft artists; previous recipients include Italian costume designer Milena Canonero, American sound designer Ben Burtt, and film editor Pietro Scalia.
- The Locarno Film Festival runs August 5-15, with Darren Aronofsky, Isabella Rossellini, and Asia Argento also receiving honorary awards; Cindy Sherman designed the official festival poster.
Why it matters: Baker joins a small, craft-focused honor roll — Canonero, Burtt, Scalia — that cements his legacy as a technical pioneer rather than a marquee celebrity. His August 12 tribute sits inside a wider Locarno slate that also honors Aronofsky, Rossellini, and Argento, signaling the festival's 2025 emphasis on genre-shaping artistry across disciplines.
